Navy Shipboard Gas Turbine Rotating Detonation Combustor Operation with Diesel Fuel

SBIR topic DON27BZ02-NV019 (U.S. Department of Defense – Navy), Phase I and II. Open to U.S. small businesses. Opens: December 2, 2026. Closes: January 6, 2027. As background, the typical arrangement used on U.S. Navy surface combatants consists of four (4) large (20+MW class – GE LM-2500) gas turbines for propulsion and three 3 smaller (3 MW class – Rolls Royce 501-K34) gas turbines for ship service electrical power generation. Presently U.S. gas turbine powered warships use simple cycle machines. However, complex cycles with reheat and other cycle enhancements have been considered and analyzed with the potential for increased efficiency. Further examinations have been performed to evaluate improvements in maintainability/reliability, overall generator set power density/stack up length, and alternative configuration installation flexibility for use in overall electric plant designs. RDCs are advanced power-generation and propulsion devices that operate by propagating one or more supersonic detonation waves continuously around an annular chamber. As fresh fuel and oxidizer are continuously injected into the channel, the rotating shock wave rapidly compresses and ignites the mixture, creating a self-sustaining zone of intense heat and pressure. Thermodynamically, RDCs utilize a detonation-driven pressure-gain cycle, which is most accurately modeled by the Fickett-Jacobs-Salsburg (FJS) cycle and frequently approximated as the constant-volume Humphrey cycle. Unlike conventional gas turbines that rely on the constant-pressure Brayton cycle, the FJS detonation cycle in an RDC generates a substantial net increase in total pressure across the combustor. This inherent pressure gain drastically reduces the workload required by upstream mechanical compressors and significantly boosts the overall thermal efficiency and power output of the gas turbine system. While initial government and industry investigations have centered on the use of RDCs in aerospace applications,…